I'm pissed off that Connex refuse to allow bikes on busses when they cancel train services and run busses instead. My trip home from the climbing gym took over an hour longer than it should have. connex told me that my bike would not be safe because it would not be secured. (i even offered to use the 70 meter climbing rope in my bag to secure it). They suggested that I leave it at the station, but they couldnt tell me how i would be able to get home from the next station. I spent about half an hour arguing and debating the point with the un-helpful useless connex staff before a helpfull bus driver said that he would let me put my bike on the bus.

Again, probably not the right forum, but I doubt the good people at Better Homes and Gardens would publish this.

I'm pissed off about Phillips Head screws. Who was the fukkin retard that came up with that idea, and then for some unknown reason the whole farking world has fallen in to line with them. Why? Mostly because I can hardly imagine a dumber engagement system. Small points of contact driven by a round handled tool. I don't buy the cost argument either, because it can't be that much harder to cast a hex head. I've wrecked so many in critical places I can't count.

The straw that broke this camel's back was the fan in our bedroom. It's a ceiling fan with a light inside it. The bulb in the light's broken. The light is accessed by PH screws that come down through the top. Better still, they're stainless, and probably in stainless nuts, so they're seized to buggery. I can't get them out with a screw driver and can't get a welder into the bedroom. I think I'll have to take the the fan out of the roof, so I can properly access the screws.

Anyway, this is a pretty esoteric rant, but why can't they use hex heads so I could use an allan key?

On 25/08/2009 evanbb wrote:>Anyway, this is a pretty esoteric rant, but why can't they use hex heads so I could use an allan key?

You're asking for more people to use allen keys so we can all have rounded screws stuck in things? Along with more problems with incorrect sizing on everything? I've seen way more messed up hex heads than PH screws.

On a related note, it always scared me that the screws to release the shatterproof window that was the secondary fire escape from a secure building I worked in used allen keys. I could always see someone rounding those out in their hurry to open the window.

On 25/08/2009 evanbb wrote:>The straw that broke this camel's back was the fan in our bedroom. It's>a ceiling fan with a light inside it. The bulb in the light's broken. The>light is accessed by PH screws that come down through the top. Better still,>they're stainless, and probably in stainless nuts, so they're seized to>buggery. I can't get them out with a screw driver and can't get a welder>into the bedroom. I think I'll have to take the the fan out of the roof,>so I can properly access the screws. >
PH screwdrivers don't slip as easily from their 'engagement' as slot screwdrivers do. They strip the engagement instead! :P

My ceiling fan/light allows the glass to be removed (to access globe), by unscrewing a rounded ss decorative centre-knob from the underside of the glass... There is no 'engagement' required other than finger strength.

Maybe your light has similar? If not, then I have a cheap right-angle phillips screwdriver (similar shape to an allen key/half a swastika x), that I got from a bicycle shop (treadly type), as part of a repair kit (it is double ended - has a slot screwdriver blade on the other end), so maybe one similar will do the trick for you re getting to the screws in an awkward gap?

On 25/08/2009 evanbb wrote:>And AJ, I've always found allan keys to be better. But maybe I use the right size more often than other punters?

Perhaps, I've seen many screwed by people grabbing the nearest metric on an imperial (or the other way) or just the only allen key they had to hand... Maybe that's my problem? I usually get called in to work on things other people have already worked on. Current classic is the pinball table I'm (slowly) restoring... Some previous person managed to snap one of the hex headed bolts on the flippers.

I'm pissed off that I bothered to read the last 6 posts in this thread (except maybe Wallwombats). That's 60 seconds of my life I can never get back. Doh! just realised that it's all my own fault. This is an internet forum after all.

On 26/08/2009 One Day Hero wrote:>I'm surprised that people are stripping allen heads, and the comment about them rounding makes me wonder if folk are confusing them with standard hex heads

I've seen both hex heads and hex/allen/zeta sockets rounded out to the point of being unusable (not as many as phillips though). Afternoons spent trying to disassemble certain beds and Ikea furniture come to mind.

I have rounded off a few in my time the worst being the shit allen key bolt that connect cleats to my riding shoes. When I strip any of the above mentioned a good trick is to get a hack saw and cut a strip into the bolt, then just use a philips head screw driver. Obviously this won't work if the bolt head is in a tight spot (aka can't fit the hack saw in).